Same old tactics and same old songs, but at least for me, so much better and likable contestants.

When I was doing my list for the thread about the 10 best performances this year I went to Wikipedia to remember who sang what throughout the show and made a small Youtube playlist.

Now I was going to do the same for last years and I had to close the page immediately because I couldn't be bothered for those acts.
Despite what you think about the finalists this year (I personally think Ben and Fleur are both too weak vocally to be where they are), they were still much more likable and exciting than that Luke/Nicholas/Sam borefest.

And the whole competition... I would have Paul Akister, Only The Young, Lola Saunders and Lauren Platt over ANY 2013 contestant.

You're making a positive thread by bitching about last year's finalists? You have skewed logic.

Well yeah, you can see it that way

My point was that the contestants selection was much better this year.

Well that's subjective. I thought this year was godawful. Paul was the only contestant who I really rated vocally and he was disposed of way too quickly. Andrea was the only other contestant who could stay in tune. The rest of them had more pitching problems amongst them than Glastonbury campers in a hurricane.

I liked this year better too, I prefer having 16 contestants in the live shows, that made a difference to me lol. Last year was good too though

I agree, this year was a long way from the worst year. Fleur, Only the Young were great and even Ben, Lauren and Andrea were perfectly decent contestants.

Last year was truly dreadful. But most years have their fair share of crap.

Last year I only really liked Luke Friend, all the other acts I could give or take.
This year was Only The Young. I liked Steph but she wasn't around long enough to make a difference. Everybody else, again, I didn't care enough about.

I enjoy the X Factor mostly to try and pick out the manipulation techniques and second guess the intentions. This year was a textbook year for that, and my highlight was the way they took Andrea to leading the vote for three weeks to finishing third with two singoffs under his belt, all whilst being force-fed pizza and pasta, thrust pugs upon, painted gold and dressed as a devil. And I'm fairly sure that he had no idea any of this was going on.

Good post just reworded slightly

He did the same with Andrea

I also liked Ben & Lauren though...just to a lesser extent that Paul

I preferred last year as a whole because Cowell wasn't there

Not really a positive thread is it :-/ did I miss something,

There have been lots more diverse song choices this year. Best year for songs imo

You mean they used Uptown Funk - every other song choice had been done about 20 times before

There were enjoyable aspects. I enjoyed supporting Jay and eventually Ben when Jay left.
And I'm really pleased Ben won in the end, despite the favouritism shown towards Fleur.

I also enjoyed Only the Young and Andrea, and sometimes Lauren, though she faded.

Cant hold us
Chandelier
Uptown Funk
Demons
Will you be there
Bang Bang
Its a shame
Happy
Dont you worry child
I know where ive been


They havent been done before on the UK x factor from what I can remember

Boom Clap too.

To be fair the song selection *was* better this year. It's just everything else let it down.

You can cross off Bang Bang - used twice this year

Even so 11 songs... out of how many performances?

The ones in bold...they may not have been performed on the show before, but they're very preditable song choices. I mean, Michael Jackson has an absolutely huge back catalogue...performing Will You Be There was a very un-interesting choice. Then there's Bang Bang...Fleur sang it at judges houses, then we had to endure her singing it again in the live shows, and then they went and wheeled out bloody Jessie J to sing it too. Again, Happy is also very preditable...I guessed they'd wheel this out before the live shows even began...popular chart hit...had X Factor performance written all over it. The most ridiculous thing is when they do a theme week for huge artists such as MJ and Whitney, yet they perform such lame song choices. These artists have absolutely huge back catalogues, yet it's always the same old 'I Will Always Love You' or 'Man In The Mirror'. You can tell it's a case of the producers thinking "well the majority of the public MUST know the song or it can't be performed". God forbid they do something interesting and peform a lesser known song from Whitney's back catalogue and do soemthig interesting to show themselves to the public. The only good choice was Uptown Funk

Thinking out loud by ed sheeran too

It is the best year since 2011 in my opinion. I hope the likes of Only The Young and Fleur inspire the producers to push more entertaining acts next year. I'm sick of songs being "John Lewis'd" and the lack of diversity among the finalists.

Fleur obsession? no more than you like Alexandra Burke or any other act, its the same every year on this forum, People disagree. Everyone argue for and against their favourites isnt that what its all about??

I said I agreed with the rest of your post, then you just go outright attack me and yes Im sorry I misread and thought it was a dig, your reply was just totally out of order.

There's no point in me continuing this argument as some of my previous posts have been removed (I obviously hit a nerve and was reported) and so me continuing to post just doesn't even make sense, as I'll be replying and referencing to posts that no longer exist. I think it's very obvious that you have an obsession with Fleur as it's pretty much all that you post about. You're right I am a fan of Alexandra, but I can respect that others don't like her and I don't post about her constantly. Anyway, I don't really have anything else to say on the matter and wil try not not reply to your posts in future.